The one waiting for me in front of the elevator—
New employee Kim Heowoon.
"Sir?"
I cannot recognize human faces.
They appear like melting mosaics, and their voices are no easier to distinguish—like degraded recordings from an old radio.
So, while I can't tell how much this ‘new employee Kim Heowoon’ standing at the elevator resembles the Jang Heowoon I once knew... one thing is certain.
...Something's off.
This is an abnormal situation.
And the person who knows that even better than I do is standing beside me.
A director of this company.
"Hello. You must be the new recruit for the field exploration team."
"Ah. Yes...! My name is Kim Heowoon."
"I see. ...But how did you get in here?"
"......Sorry?"
"You're assigned to the field exploration team, right? Then you shouldn’t be able to enter this security team zone at will... I was wondering how you came to be here."
Silence.
"And how did you find this elevator? For you to know that someone was here—"
Director Ho pointed at me.
"How could you have known that?"
“.......”
His mouth opens.
"I imitated them."
...What?
"I impersonated the security team to get in, and impersonated the research team to find your location."
Imitated...?
A sense of foreboding creeps in.
A smile spreads across the face of Kim Heowoon—still obscured.
"But I’ve already achieved my goal for joining the company, so I don’t mind being fired for this."
And then he looks at me.
"Sir."
The goal of his employment—
"...was to find someone."
Me.
"You don’t need to worry. There wasn’t any disturbance. I only came to formally introduce myself... and to say thank you."
Then Kim Heowoon bowed deeply toward me.
"Thank you for saving us. Thanks to you, the people at the facility all survived."
......
Wait a second.
"Because of you, Jang Heowoon’s wish came true."
What does that mean...?
"Ah. How unfortunate. It seems my guess was wrong, Noru-nim."
I realized it.
Both wish tickets that were passed to Ko Yeongeun had been used—
‘He didn’t use the wish ticket to save Jang Heowoon...!’
Someone as clever and calm as him wouldn’t have made such a clumsy wish. If anything—
‘He would’ve been more anxious just having the wish tickets in his possession.’
Because someone could always steal them.
And perhaps he was informed that the SDRA was already doing its best to stabilize Jang Heowoon’s condition—but that there was no telling when he’d recover completely.
In that case, it would make more sense to preemptively use one of the tickets—on behalf of Jang Heowoon—before something went wrong.
Since recovery from contamination had precedent, like in the security team, it could be entrusted to the SDRA.
Instead, he must have made a real wish.
Like this:
Please grant Jang Heowoon’s wish.
And Jang Heowoon’s wish—
...was to save his precious family.
......
And right before my eyes, I now saw the wish of Jang Heowoon—fulfilled.
A member of that family, by the name Kim Heowoon.
The people from the religious social welfare facility in the countryside—where the orphaned Jang Heowoon had grown up—destroyed in a fire.
[Fascinating situation, isn’t it, my friend?]
[But even more curious—how does this man know that his friend gave away a wish ticket?]
[And doesn’t the phrase "I imitated them" seem strangely vague to you?]
...That part—
I might have an idea.
A chill creeps up my spine. An ominous sensation tells me the answer, as a theory rises in my mind like a shock.
I narrow it down—question by question.
Question: Relationship with Jang Heowoon
"Ah. We’re family, raised together in the same facility. Out of eight of us, seven died in the fire."
Question: Why do you share the same name?
"At the facility, all residents living together were given the same name. Since our surnames were different, we shared our given names. Because we were family."
Question: Do you share any family rules?
"We didn’t really have rules, but... we received the same education, ate the same food, and slept in the same room. So that we could live up to the name ‘Heowoon’ equally. To have the same experiences."
Question: Example of ‘a lifestyle befitting the name Heowoon’?
"Oh, it wasn’t difficult. For example... sleeping late and waking up late."
......
"Reading poetry more than twice a week, developing a fear of blood, starting middle school a year early, and dropping out of high school."
And—
"Never introducing ourselves by name if we meet a shaman or a religious figure."
......
Final question.
Question: Name of the facility
"Oh, that place..."
And I already knew the answer.
In this world, there were countless bizarre organizations—but only one was insane enough to run an orphanage like this.
"...It’s called the Love Paradise Shelter."
......
Love Paradise.
"Are you familiar with it?"
I am.
A rather well-known cult in South Korea within this universe.
I’d seen that name once before—at the SDRA.
“Human life is full of fear. But you need not be afraid any longer. The Lover of Paradise is waiting to protect and love you. Come to Love Paradise.”
When we handled the “Person in Red by Exit 4” case with the Baekho Team—at my suggestion—we had field agents pretend to be cult recruiters using that very phrase. It was a parody of that group.
But for me, something even clearer comes to mind.
That cult had its own page in the Dark Exploration Records wiki.
Love Paradise
A fringe religion that gained traction in early 2000s Korea within the Dark Exploration Records universe.
It spread with slogans like “You will meet your ideal partner” or “We will create your ideal lover,” appealing to the youth with seductive promises and viral marketing across early internet platforms.
In truth, it was a pseudo-religious cult that used unethical and ritualistic means to forcibly reshape followers’ lives—turning them into suitable vessels for the so-called “Lover of Paradise.”
And—
The theory that this process influenced the Mimicker Sect had been popular, and eventually the Mimicker Sect was confirmed as the parent organization.
That facility belonged to the Mimicker Sect.
Jang Heowoon had grown up in one of their orphanages.
And he’d joined Baekilmong Corporation... to save the fellow cult survivors he called his "family"—targets of the same ritual.
......
At this point, it became clear how the Yukhoe Research Lab’s Lee Heowoon was connected.
That Heowoon was the ritual’s intended target.
If the “Lover of Paradise” was a real person, then the Mimicker Sect might attempt to hijack their narrative by imitating them through ritual.
An act of narrative theft to become a meaningful being in this world—aligning with the cult’s doctrine.
They were raising someone to imitate Lee Heowoon and steal the role of that researcher.
These personal stories—never recorded in the Dark Exploration Records—begin surrounding me like whispers from the dead.
It feels like a cold sweat is sliding down my spine in the shape of dread itself.
[Ah, so they mimic someone’s life twist by twist, and craft a similar story to replicate that identity...]
[It’s like spiritual assembly-line manufacturing. Mass-producing stories the way capitalism forges machine parts.]
[As if the same process should yield the same product!]
And one such "product" now stands before us.
A replica, crafted in imitation of Lee Heowoon.
Kim Heowoon lowers his head.
"The truth is... I lied when I said I came just to introduce myself."
......
"I came to ask you for something—desperately."
He speaks with utmost politeness.
An absurd request.
"Just like you took in Jang Heowoon... could you take in all of us too?"
...!!
"Because we can tell. We’re all Heowoons. ...And Jang Heowoon is happy under your care, isn’t he?"
A headache begins to throb behind my eyes.
Reason for this request
"...We have nowhere else to return to."
His voice softens.
"Our facility burned down. And we... can’t go to any other Love Paradise shelter. We can’t live the way we used to."
I understood, even without him saying it.
The fire.
That fire had been part of the ritual—meant to recreate the researcher’s narrative from Yukhoe Lab.
Jang Heowoon, who survived a large fire at his facility, had a complete narrative.
But this man... had been a discard. One of the raw materials.
"Please... give us the same name Jang Heowoon received."
......
"If you do that, we can be the same person. That’s how we were raised!"
His voice trembles with urgency.
"...Doesn’t it feel symbolic that Jang Heowoon was the first? Like an eldest son, given the surname ‘Jang’? Then we could all keep..."
I raised my hand. Kim Heowoon quickly bowed his head, as if expecting it to be a blessing—but—
Smoke rose from my palm.
Rejection.
"...What?"
Better choices:
▶ Break free from Lee Heowoon’s life
▶ Live your own life
"What? But... I..."
From beside the elevator, I hear Director Ho stifle a laugh—a small snort, as if he’d just heard a ridiculous proposal.
And then—
"I already received the power of the Mimicker to come here, so... at this point, I can’t even escape—"
“Are you unhappy?”
Shhk.
Kim Heowoon is cut in two.
Right before my eyes, his body splits down the middle—his upper torso slumping diagonally, landing on the floor with a wet splatter.
Blood spreads.
It soaks the tips of my shoes.
And only then, for the first time, am I able to see Kim Heowoon’s face.
Because in death, he was no longer human.
The lifeless face of a man in his twenties—somewhat dark, with a gentle expression—bore an uncanny resemblance to Jang Heowoon. It was frozen mid-expression, stained with both hope and despair...
“Now you’ll be happy forever. Congratulations.”
And then it dawns on me.
The wish ticket is a personal omnipotence.
Which means—rather than transporting Ko Yeongeun or Jang Heowoon into another world, the fact that seven people were simply revived outright tells me everything I need to know.
From the start, the system had judged that this wish would not significantly affect the world at large.
Because—
They’re going to die again soon anyway.
“Hi there.”
I looked up.
Standing there, drenched in Kim Heowoon’s blood, smiling serenely, was a delicate-looking youth.
He was even wearing a tattered old school uniform.
But then the emergency broadcast began to play throughout the facility, revealing his true identity—
[Evacuation alert. High-risk intruder containment failed. Evacuation alert. High-risk intruder containment failed. Evacuation alert. High-risk intruder containment failed....]
...And I understand.
Kim Heowoon said he entered by imitating others.
He said he’d received the power of the Mimicker.
That’s not something you could gain unless you were raised in one of the ritual facilities disguised as “new religions” operated by the lowest ranks of the Mimicker Sect.
Which meant only one thing:
He had help.
“Wow, you look pretty cool.”
This boy—who had probably swallowed a few dozen fragments of holy scriptures and willingly transcended human limits to become something closer to an urban legend than a person—
Was a follower of Name-nim.
“Do you know Name-nim by any chance?”
A Mimicker Sect executive was now standing in front of me.
And judging from his speech, his appearance, and his behavior... the sect.
This wasn’t the Mimicker Church.
It was—
The Happy Ending Sect
The most altruistic faction within the Mimicker Sect. Revered by Name-nim. They aim to grant "happy endings" to those who are doomed—those who hold no meaning and have no chance of surviving the apocalypse.
Their preferred method: death.
Because the dead can no longer become unhappy.
“Even if you don’t know, that’s okay. Mmm... both the fox and the dragon are cool-looking. Let’s go together.”
The elevator we had been riding—
Begins to twist.
“Let’s serve Name-nim together, all of us.”